Turning Points Winter Special 2014: Deck the Halls
by WynterSky
Summary: Naruto, Sakura and Shikamaru end up with a decorating mission during the holidays.


[A/N: Look, it's a Turning Points story without any Uchihas! I wanted to write Narufluff this year. This occurs pre-Exams so Naruto, Sakura and Shikamaru are still Team 7 and the other teams are still mixed up.]

"Naruto, stop eating the cookies and help me hang this tinsel!"

Naruto looked up guiltily, but stuffed the cookie into his mouth rather than return it to the tin he had just swiped it from. Sakura shook her head chidingly but there was a smile on her lips. "Shikamaru, you too."

Shikamaru frowned as he looked at the ladder both Naruto and Sakura were now perched on. "I'll stay on the ground if you don't mind," he said. "It's less troublesome."

"Come on, Shikamaru, help us out!" Naruto protested, but Shikamaru was already busying himself with a tray full of small candles that were meant for the refreshment tables. "How come we had to get stuck with this mission?" he sighed as he reeled out some more tinsel for Sakura to staple up.

"The other option was Neji, Kiba and Tenten's team."

"Oh," Naruto breathed. "Gotcha." Kiba and his dog plus the unpredictable, resentful pair of Neji and Tenten would be a terrible choice to hang the decorations for the 72nd Annual Konoha Jounin Holiday Party. "Hey, where's Kakashi-sensei? He was following us when we bought the extra tinsel, then he kind of disappeared?"

"He's not even going to make it on time for the party," Shikamaru pointed out from the punch table. "We can't expect him to arrive early to put up decorations."

Sakura hooked her leg around the top step of the ladder so she could lean back to staple tinsel in a hard-to-get spot beside the ceiling fan. "Shikamaru, if I look down and there's less punch there than when we started…"

"I don't even _like_ punch."

"Good. Keep it that way."

Shikamaru muttered something of which Sakura only understood the word 'troublesome'. She ignored him as she pulled the trigger of the staplegun, then frowned. "Naruto, it's not working," she complained, gesturing with the disobedient device. "I think it's out of stap—aah!"

"Watch it!"

"Ow!"

Sakura landed on Naruto. Naruto was expecting to come to a personal disagreement with the ground immediately afterwards, but found that his fall was stopped as well. Blinking away his daze, he tried to identify his rescuer. "Shika—Iruka-sensei?"

"Do you remember nothing from shop class? That is not how you use a ladder!" Iruka scolded as he set the two genin on their feet. "Now, where's the rest of your team?"

"Kakashi vanished before we even got here," Naruto said. "Shikamaru's over there with the candles."

"Hello," Shikamaru said from behind the punchbowl.

Sakura pulled the ladder into a better position, then started looking for more staples. "What are you doing here anyway, Iruka-sensei?" she asked as she knelt to peek under a table. "I mean, you're...well...this is a _Jounin_ Holiday Party."

"The first-year Academy students made snowflakes in Art. I thought the extra ones could be put to use. Naruto, can you help me carry them up?"

"Sure thing, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shook his head to clear the last of the dizziness from it—dizziness that had not been entirely caused by the fall. He still could sense the warmth he had felt through Sakura's fuzzy red reindeer sweater just before her full weight had slammed into his ribcage. With these happy thoughts, he followed Iruka down to the lobby of the Hokage Tower from the second-floor reception room where the party was being held.

Three boxes were sitting on a chair in the empty lobby. Naruto didn't see why Iruka couldn't have brought them up himself in the first place, but then if the teacher had had his hands full when he first entered the room he wouldn't have been able to catch Naruto and Sakura. He decided he had better not complain as he picked the boxes up. Then he noticed something odd. "Hey, Iruka-sensei," he said as he followed the teacher to the stairs. "One of these boxes is giftwrapped."

"What, is it?" the teacher exclaimed, turning back and picking up the top two boxes, which left Naruto holding the giftwrapped one. "I must have mixed one of my presents in by mistake."

Naruto looked at the present, trying to hide from Iruka the hopeful sadness he felt. He had actually received a few gifts this year: Sakura had given him a leather kunai case, and Shikamaru had given him a giftcard to one of the Akimichi restaurants. Even Kakashi had shoved a few bills into his hand and told him to "buy some comics or a coloring book or something."

This year had been really good. It really wasn't the teacher's fault that Naruto was now looking at the largest present he had ever held in his life.

"I can't get at the tag like this," Iruka said, bouncing the two boxes he now held to prove his point. "Can you tell me who it's for?"

Naruto frowned and gulped, blinking as he turned the box so he could read the tag. "It...um, it says it's for Uzu—_Uzumaki Naruto?!_ Iruka-sensei, really?"

Iruka had the presence of mind to quickly set down the other two boxes so that he could catch Naruto and his box as the boy pounced on him. "Yes, really! I wanted to surprise you—did I overdo it?" he asked quickly as Naruto sniffled. "I'm sorry…"

"No, no," Naruto replied. "This is great, Iruka-sensei. Can I—can I open it now?"

"Of course." Iruka ruffed Naruto's hair, then settled back to watch as Naruto tore into the present.

Naruto showed no mercy to the hapless giftwrap, and soon the box was sitting bare amidst sparkling shreds of paper. Taking a deep breath, he reverently pulled the lid off the box and shifted aside a few layers of tissue.

"Do you like it?" Iruka asked as Naruto removed the box's contents.

"Iruka-sensei, I love it!" Naruto exclaimed, holding up the fuzzy green snowman sweater. To an unbiased onlooker it wouldn't seem like much: the same sort of silly sweater that so many people received and then stuffed into a closet every year. To Naruto, who had never received even a silly sweater during the holidays before, it was wonderful. Slipping out of his orange jacket, he pulled the sweater on. "Let's go put up some snowflakes!"


End file.
